Cockadoodledoo...

Christmas Recap

The day was full of fun, laughter, family and food!

 

 The dinner table was full!

 

 Daughter's boyfriend deep fried a turkey for us!

YUM!

I also did a prime rib!

 Never too old for a stocking!

 Mom and daughter selfie!

 Even when they are all grown up, sitting in the box is fun!

 Her brother likes to get inventive when he wraps gifts for her!

This year he took leftover wrapping paper from a gathering the night before, stuck her present on the bottom of a big box and then put the used paper on top!

So funny!

 She liked the gift once she got to it!

 So happy our son was able to spend the day with us!

For the last several years, he has worked on Christmas day!

 The boyfriend was surprised when he had gifts from us to open too!

 The third and fourth season of The Walking Dead!

Happy girl!

 The critters got goodies too!

Santapaws was good to them!

 "We love our toys!"

 What's in my stocking?

 Waiting for Santapaws to come!

 Stockings all stuffed!

 The 2014 tree!

It was a real tree this year!

And The Rain Came Down

Had one heck of a rain storm yesterday!

It rained and rained and rained!

We needed it!

Giant puddles formed everywhere!

 

 The coop flooded!

The chickens were not impressed!

 The equipment yard became a soupy mess!

The farm is quiet this time of year, so no worries about anything getting stuck!

 I had to venture out into the rain storm to secure the chicken coop and deal with the flooding issue!

When I came in, I looked like a drowned rat!

Had a little holiday cheer to help warm me up!

Today the wind blew and blew!

The puddles are all dried up and the wind fluffed the chickens right up!



Going South...Going North

Hubby and I headed south to Arizona before Thanksgiving.

We had planned to go anyway, but got a call that hubby's father was in the hospital.

We spent nine days in AZ before heading home.

It wasn't the visit we had planned, but everything is okay for now.

 

The trip is long and we usually stop a few times a long the way.

One of my favorite stops is in Tonopah, NV at the Mizpah Hotel.

The hotel is old and has a lot of history behind it.

For years it was closed and in a sad state of disrepair!

 

Several years back it was purchased by the Cline Family and lovingly restored to its former glory!

It's beautiful!

You can find a bit more information here on the hotel.

 

We stopped twice on this trip, once going down and then again coming back.

On the trip down the hotel was decorated for Thanksgiving.

On the trip back it was decked out for Christmas!

 

I took a few minutes to snap a few pictures of some of the Christmas décor.

It was pretty and provided a bit of relaxation before the rest of the trip home.

 

  See that window...

It is an original from the 1800's! It was brought over from Italy!

When the restoration was done, a few of the original windows had to be replaced and they too came from the same town in Italy that the originals came from!

The photo does not do them justice.

They are absolutely beautiful!

 

The sun was setting at one point on the way home and the landscape was pretty.

I snapped this photo through the window as we were zipping along the isolated, empty road home!

It was good to get back home!



Cold and Snow

It's cold!

It's snowing! Nothing major, but still snowing!

Our high today will only be 38 degrees!

Burrrrr!!!!

 

Took this photo from my kitchen window.

I was too cold and lazy to walk outside!

I think it will be a good day to do some baking.



Veterans Day

Fall Storm

The first fall storm rolled through our valley yesterday.

The temperature really dropped and it rained all day!

When the clouds lifted off the range in the late afternoon, I could see snow!

 

Woke up this morning to bright blue sky, snow on the range and it was down right cold!

I will miss the 70 degree days we had been having!



Guess What

Chickens butt...that's what!

 

This was a favorite saying of my husbands grandmother.

I couldn't resist taking this photo of a very fluffy butt as those words popped into my head the other day!

 

 Also, fluffy butts produce lovely eggs!

These flowers are the last of the summer flowers that are sitting on the porch steps.

They have made it through one hard frost, but still have a pop of color left in them!

The Last of Hay Season

 

As I walked the other evening, I realized as I looked out over this field of hay that another hay season has come to an end.

These are the last bales of 4th crop waiting to go in the stack.

 

 The contrast of the sky and field caught my eye.

We have had some pretty evening skies lately.

The farm was quiet as I walked along the road.

 The only sound was the panting of the dog as we stopped to watch the sun set beyond the Slumbering Hills.

 

These three photos were taken within 10 minutes of each other, looking south and then west in our valley. Our Nevada sky can truly put on a show at times!



Phil Figures It Out

Phil is my Australorp rooster.

He has been separated from the "girls" for several months now.

Over the weekend, he figured out how to get in with them.

I managed to wrangle him out of the coop once, but within a day, he was right back with them!

 

 

 

He wins for now!

He seems rather pleased with himself! 

From Scratch

I have lots of eggs right now!

Using them up can be a challenge.

 

I've been making Angel Food Cake from scratch for years!

They are not hard to make despite what many people think.

I always have a lot of yolks left over when I make an angel food cake, so I found a recipe to use them up as well.

 

I made these two cakes a couple of weeks back.

Angle Food Cake on the left and Sponge Cake on the right.

Angle Food Cake

 

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup of all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups egg whites (about 12)

1 1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp vanilla extract or almond extract

1 cup sugar

 

Sift together powdered sugar and flour; repeat the sifting three times. I actually sift over a sheet of wax paper and it works very well. Then for the final sift, I sift it all into a bowl. In a large mixing bowl beat egg whites, cream of tartar and extract and 1/4 tsp salt at medium speed till soft peaks form. Gradually add granulated sugar, about 2 to 3 tblsp at a time. Continue beating till stiff peaks form. Sift about 1/4 of the flour mixture over the whites; fold in lightly by hand using a spatula. Repeat, folding in remaining flour mixture by fourths and be very gentle with the batter. Turn into an ungreased 10 inch tube pan. Bake on lowest rack in a 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes or till done. Invert cake in pan; cool completely. I actually have a stand that I rest my cake pan upside down on but a bottle will work just as well. Loosen cake from pan; remove. Serves about 12. Freezes well. Top with strawberries or fresh berries.

 

 

I used this recipe for the Sponge Cake.

I added an Orange glaze icing to the cake when done.

Mix powdered sugar, orange juice and a dash of orange extract in a bowl until it is of drizzling consistency, then pour over cake or serve over slices.

 

Both of these cakes freeze very well.

Cut them into slices and wrap slices in plastic wrap then slide into freezer bags and freeze.

 You can have cake whenever you desire!

Homemade cake at that! 



Dandelion Patch

On an evening walk last week, we found a dandelion patch at the edge of one of the hayfields.

 

 

Lots of good smells to explore!

And maybe a few wishes to make!

 

I wonder if all those wishes would come true?

Fall is in the air! 

Twenty Five

This past week, September 23, my husband and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary!

 

These beautiful roses were delivered to my office on our special day.

 These are the most gorgeous roses I have ever seen!

They are really big rose buds!

Giant Roses!

 

We brought them home and I put them on the mantel.

They took up a lot of room!

 I have enjoyed them all week!

So pretty!

Twenty Five years went by so fast!

(There were actually 26 roses in the bouquet. Somebody miscounted when they put the arrangement together, which made me laugh.)

Smokey Jalapeno Deviled Eggs

When you have an abundance of eggs, you start to get creative with recipes using eggs!

We love deviled eggs, but I wanted to kick it up a notch or two, so I came up with something new.

I'm sure there are lots of recipes like this one out there in the universe, but this one is mine.

 

I hard boil eggs using this method or you can boil eggs however you prefer to boil them. But seriously, check out the method I use! It's AMAZING!

I LOVE the Chicken Chick!

She has wonderful advice and tips on her blog and the egg boiling method is fail-proof!

It works every time!

I don't have steamer basket, so I just use my veggie steamer and it works like a charm!

 

 

 So boil up some eggs. I usually do between 8 and 12.
Once they are cool, peel them, split and scoop out the yolk.
Put yolk in a bowl and mash up with a fork.
Place whites on a plate to await the yummy goodness that will fill them.
Add a spoonful of mayo. I eyeball it, no measuring on my part.
Squeeze in a some mustard. I like mustard, so I use a good amount.
Add a dash of smoked paprika.
Dice up a bunch of pickled jalapeno slices. I just scoop out a bunch from the jar and chop away.
Add the jalapenos and some juice from the jar to the egg mixture.
Add a dash of salt and pepper.
Mix well.
Taste test to make sure all is right. We like spicy, so I usually add a bit more jalapeno juice or more peppers at this point.
When the mixture is right and too your liking, scoop into the egg white halves using a teaspoon.
Fill all the egg whites and whatever is left in the bowl...eat it!
Sprinkle the tops of the eggs with a bit more smoked paprika.
Cover and chill or serve right away.
YUM!
 



Net Walker

 

Meet Phil.

Phil is an Australorp Cockerel.

He is also a net walker!

He loves to show off his new talent!

 

And he refuses to get down when I tell him too!

"Talk to the fluffy butt, cause I'm not getting down!"

Wine Walks

I took several evening walks this past week.

I took my red solo cup of wine along with me, so I have dubbed these walks, "wine walks."

Munchie loved these walks as he got to explore and romp and explore some more!

 We have had smoke rolling over the hills and down into our valley from the fires in northern California and Oregon.

 

 The smoke does make for a pretty sunset!

 Sometimes we find dead things on our walks and we try to bring them home!

Ick!

I had to put my cup down and chase him to get this away from him!

He was pleased with his find! I was not!

The wine walks were fun, relaxing and a tad adventurous this past week!